David Jason Muir ( MURE; born November 8, 1973) is an American journalist and anchor for ABC World News Tonight and co-anchor of the ABC News magazine 20/20, part of the news department of the ABC broadcast-television network, based in New York City. Muir previously served as the weekend anchor and primary substitute anchor on ABC's World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer before succeeding her on September 1, 2014.
Since joining ABC News in 2003, Muir has reported from hotspots all over the world, with dispatches from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Ukraine, Tahrir Square, Mogadishu, Gaza, Guantanamo, Fukushima, Beirut, Amman, and the Syrian border, among other places. At ABC News, Muir has won multiple Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards for his national and international journalism. He was the 2024 recipient of the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. In both 2023 and 2024 Muir won the Emmy for Outstanding Live News Program and the Edward R. Murrow Award for Network TV Newscast.
Muir has become one of the most visible journalists in America. World News Tonight with David Muir has been the most watched newscast in the United States since 2015. Muir's climate reporting has also been recognized with the George Polk Award, and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award.
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Early life and education
Muir was born into a Catholic family in Syracuse, New York and grew up in Onondaga Hill. Muir has one older sibling, two younger stepsiblings, six nieces, and three nephews.
As a child, he watched ABC News' flagship program each night with his family. Muir credits longtime anchor Peter Jennings as his biggest journalistic influence.
Muir graduated from Onondaga Central Junior-Senior High School in May 1991. He attended Ithaca College, graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism in May 1995. During high school, he interned at WTVH-TV in Syracuse. While in college, he was inspired by a professor who told him he had "the cut of a TV newsman". He spent a semester at the Institute on Political Journalism at the Fund for American Studies at Georgetown University and another semester abroad at the University of Salamanca in Spain with the Institute for the International Education of Students.
Career
WTVH television
From 1994 to 2000, Muir worked as an anchor and a reporter at WTVH-TV in Syracuse, New York. Muir's reports from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Israel, and the Gaza Strip following the 1995 assassination of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin earned him top honors from the Radio-Television News Directors Association. The Associated Press honored Muir for Best Enterprise Reporting and Best Television Interview. The Syracuse Press Club recognized Muir as the anchor of the "Best Local Newscast", and he was voted one of the "Best Local News Anchors" in Syracuse.
WCVB television
From 2000 to 2003, Muir was an anchor and reporter for WCVB television in Boston, where he won the regional Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting and the National Headliner Award and Associated Press honors for his work tracing the path of the hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks. The Associated Press also recognized his news anchoring and reporting.
ABC News
In August 2003, Muir joined ABC News as anchor of the overnight news program World News Now. He also became the anchor of ABC News' early morning newscast World News This Morning. In 2006, and occasionally after that, he co-anchored the newsmagazine Primetime. In June 2007, Muir became the anchor of World News Saturday. In February 2011, Muir became an anchor for both weekend newscasts, and the broadcast was named World News with David Muir. Muir has been silently credited with a rise in the ratings of the weekend evening broadcasts. In March 2013, Muir was promoted to co-anchor ABC's 20/20 with Elizabeth Vargas.
In September 2005, Muir was inside the New Orleans Superdome as Hurricane Katrina hit and stayed in New Orleans to report on the unfolding humanitarian crisis. Muir's reports revealed and highlighted the deteriorating conditions inside the Convention Center and Charity Hospital as Muir waded through chest-deep water to find patients trapped inside the hospital.
Muir reported from the Israeli-Lebanon border in October 2006 on the Israeli war with Hezbollah. Muir was in Gaza in March 2007 to cover the Hamas coup, reporting from inside the Gaza Strip. In October 2007, Muir was dispatched to Peru after the worst earthquake to hit that country in more than two decades.
In September 2008, Muir reported from Ukraine, more than two decades after the Chernobyl nuclear accident. In April 2009, David Muir and Diane Sawyer reported a 20/20 hour about guns in America getting "disturbing results" as described by the New York Daily News.
In May 2009, Muir's reporting on 20/20 revealed a significant increase in the number of homeless children in America. Muir made multiple trips to the Gulf of Mexico to investigate the BP oil spill.
In January 2010, Muir traveled to Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake, which orphaned tens of thousands of children and destroyed the country's buildings and basic services. More than 220,000 people died, and many others were injured in the 7.0-magnitude quake. He has returned to Haiti multiple times since the earthquake hit, uncovering attacks on women and the unfolding mental health crisis in Port au Prince.
Honors
Muir delivered the commencement address at his alma mater, Ithaca College, in May 2011; he urged graduates to use their voices. On March 13, 2015, the college awarded Muir an honorary Doctor of Letters degree and the Jessica Savitch Award of Distinction for Excellence in Journalism.
In 2012, Muir was awarded an Edward R. Murrow for Hard News Reporting for A Cry For Help: Famine in Somalia.
In 2013, TV Week called Muir one of the "12 to Watch in TV News". He was listed as one of People's Sexiest Men Alive in 2014.
On May 8, 2015, Muir delivered the commencement address at Northeastern University in Massachusetts. During the ceremony, he was given an honorary Doctor of Media degree.
In 2017, Muir's reporting for 20/20 "Heroin: Breaking Point in America" on the heroin epidemic won a CINE Golden Eagle Award in the News Program/Continuing Coverage category.
Muir moderated a town hall with President Barack Obama on race and policing after a series of police-involved shootings in the summer of 2016, winning a News & Documentary Emmy.
On May 12, 2018, Muir delivered the commencement address at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, Wisconsin.
In 2018, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir received the RTDNA Edward R. Murrow Award for TV Network Newscast, for their coverage of the Santa Rosa wildfires.
Muir's live reporting from Panama City Beach, Florida later that year, as Hurricane Michael hit the panhandle as a category 5 storm won a News & Documentary Emmy for breaking news.
In 2019, Muir would win another Emmy for his reporting on the Las Vegas shooting for ABC's 20/20.
